Can anyone be funny? We spoke to comedian and writer Stevie Martin to get the low down on lols, imposter syndrome and her brand new solo show, Vol. 1…

How do you become a stand up comedian?

It feels like there are two main ways people become comedians: because it’s something they’ve always dreamed of, or by accident. I fall into the latter camp. When I was at university, my friend’s boyfriend was in the university sketch troupe (The Durham Revue) and they were auditioning. I said I didn’t want to do it. Then I got quite drunk, did the audition drunk, got in, had a lovely two years but couldn’t see it as a career path so became a journalist, then three years later realised I missed doing it so much that I started a sketch group on the side of my 9-5. Now I’m a comedian, but I never say I’m a comedian because I find it incredibly embarrassing. I say I’m a writer which is true, just not the WHOLE truth.

Can you force funny AKA can anyone be funny?

I think anyone can be funny, but being “funny” on stage is definitely an art form that’s completely different from being a great laugh in the pub. Audiences are ruthless and totally changeable – so much depends on the vibe in the room, rather than the actual material. In Edinburgh last year, I performed Vol. 1 every night for a month and every single night the room would respond differently to different bits. If I mess up a joke during a short ten-minute set at a mixed bill gig (with lots of different comedians), it takes a long time to gain an audience’s confidence back and make them laugh again. If I come out really strong, I can stutter over a bunch of lines later on and it won’t affect anything because I’ve already got their confidence. I find that stuff really interesting and, when you get it right, it’s definitely the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done. And I once held my breath for a minute in exchange for ten pogs (I nearly fainted, I was eight, it was exhilarating).

Where do your ideas come from?

I always felt like an imposter because in my head I should be sat 9-5 writing, like when on a deadline for an article. Thing is, I can go ages without having any good ideas at all, and then in one night write half an hour of material that works, without any idea where it’s come from. I don’t know about anyone else’s brain, but my brain works in bursts – I just have to arrange my life so that I’m able to catch the bursts when they come out. That sounds gross….

The thing that gives me the most inspiration for ideas is watching other shows, not just comedy but plays, musicals, any sort of performance. For some reason, seeing someone doing something on a stage just unlocks ideas, and those ideas are never anything to do with what I’ve just seen. I think everyone has their own way, and every way is much more annoying and difficult than you presume it will be. It’s very rare that I’ll suddenly think of a fully formed joke or sketch, I usually brainstorm until something pops up that makes me think “Oooh that would be fun to do” and then it either is, or I perform it to silence in which case, into the “Let’s never think about that again” box it goes.

How would you sum up your first solo show, Vol. 1?

The idea is that it’s an hour of beginnings for all types of shows. From horror plays to stand-up, to the first few minutes of a séance. Nothing outstays it’s welcome and it’s basically all jokes and me throwing myself around for the audience’s entertainment.

Why should we come and see it?

Because it’s pure escapism, I won’t be mentioning Brexit or Donald Trump, and because of the sheer volume and variety of jokes I’m genuinely convinced that everyone will laugh AT LEAST twice. MINIMUM.

What advice would you give an aspiring comedian?

Book a gig, or put on a night with a few mates in a comedy-friendly room above a pub and just do it. The first time you do it, if you’re anything like me, you will try to cancel four times and your friend who runs the gig will refuse to allow you to cancel and then you’ll go to the toilet 700 times and not be able to eat anything all day. Then you’ll do it and feel like someone just injected the sun into your heart because, even if nobody laughs, YOU DID IT. And the next time will slightly (very slightly) better, and then the next time and the next time until you’re a year in and you only go to the toilet 452 times.

How do you start a comedy group?

There are lots of groups on Facebook, but I feel like if you want to start a comedy group, you need to have a relationship with the people you’re working with. I was in a group with two people I knew very well and it was still incredibly difficult at times. A lot of shouting and a lot of tension.

The best bet is to do a comedy course, or some sort of class, so you get to meet other people and, crucially, see if they have the same sense of humour as you do. There’s a really great improvised comedy course in Hackney called the Free Association which spawns a lot of sketch groups and is full of creative people who don’t necessarily want to devote their entire lives to improv, but certainly want to create fun stuff. The Soho Theatre run great comedy courses too.

Is it hard going solo after being part of a sketch group?

In some ways yes, but in some ways no. It took longer for me to comfortable being on stage by myself than it did with two other people, and if I balls up there’s nobody to bail me out (I’m very bad at learning lines I’ve written. Other people’s lines are fine. Mine are not). But on the other hand, when I was in a group, every idea had to be vetted by two separate people before it went in. Now it’s just me. Sure, that means that new material nights (where comedians test out material they’ve never said aloud to another human before) are a lot scarier, but it means that the finished show feels so much more satisfying because it all came from you. You’re not quietly thinking “Well that would have been funnier if we’d gone for my excellent banjo joke there”.

Liz and I were both in the Durham Revue, both tried to get normal jobs and then both missed comedy and couldn’t stop talking about how we’d love to do it. Tessa was in the year below us at university, and in the Durham Revue the year after we left, so we knew of her and thought she was very funny so approached her tentatively. Before long, we were rehearsing and writing in my office after I’d clocked off for the day and doing little gigs in pubs around London. I wouldn’t have been able to do my first ever gig alone, it was hard enough doing it alone after two years of doing it with other people! I would have melted into a small puddle.

What three women would you urge everyone to follow right now?

I love Beth McColl, she’s a writer who tweets at @imteddybliss and always makes me laugh, @meganamram co-wrote The Good Place and is really really funny (obviously) and also Lou Sanders @LouSanders who is one of my favourite comedians and tweets loads of really silly one liners.

Who’s the funniest person you know?

My sister, Gina, makes me laugh in a way that could never be explained or translated to other people. Same with my boyfriend. And all of my close friends. I feel like life is too short not to surround yourself with people that make you need to go to the toilet because you’re laughing so hard about nothing.

WASHINGTON — Pete Alonso discovered he had cracked the Mets’ Opening Day roster as part of a gag by his manager. Mickey Callaway convened all the players who were awaiting official word on their status earlier this week — Alonso, Dominic Smith, Luis Guillorme, J.D. Davis and Tomas Nido — and had them hit together…Sports | New York Post

In the early 1700s, a physician named James Douglas, a quasi-famous midwife known for performing public dissections of female pelvises in his home, came across a wrinkle of uterine flesh he hadn’t seen before. The region was a tiny cavity, sort of like a kangaroo’s flap, which expands if a woman needs more room during pregnancy. The doctor called his anatomical New World the “Pouch of Douglas.” Medical dictionaries describe Douglas’ revelation as “an extension of peritoneum between the posterior wall of uterus and the rectum in females,” but it’s basically a reproductive crawl-space. As findings go, it’s about as close as you can get to discovering nothing. In comedian Hannah Gadsby’s latest stand-up set, a work-in-progress which runs through March 9 at the Hayworth Theater in L.A., she compares the little flap to the extra zipper on a suitcase. “It’s a potential space,” she told the crowd. Gadsby’s calling her new show “Douglas.”

If there’s a specific subtext behind the choice to name her set after the nothing-discovery of an 18th century pelvis dissector, Gadsby doesn’t mention it outright. Douglas is also the name of her dog. But the new show arrives on the heels ofNanette, a comedy special which aired on Netflix last summer, sending waves through the think-piece internet and comedy Twitterverse. The special, for those who managed not to hear about it, had nothing to do with the name Nanette, and everything to do with a problem Gadsby saw in her industry—namely, an expectation that comedy minorities make themselves the butt of the joke. The polarizing show, which begins as a fairly unremarkable set, before taking a serious twist into Gadsby’s account of a hate crime, prompted two tiresome debates: one over whether it heralded the end of stand-up, and another over whether it constituted stand-up at all. But whatever the special meant for its genre, Nanette signaled something fairly straightforward about Gadsby’s career: “I’m quitting,” she told the crowd. She didn’t, as it turns out. And in Douglas, the comic is workshopping what, exactly, not-quitting looks like.

“It’s hard to know what this show should be,” Gadsby told the audience Thursday night, “because I quit comedy.” Douglas is a work-in-progress at its most fundamental. (“This is rough as guts,” she says at one point, “but I feel pretty comfortable, because Nanette wasn’t funny, and, well…”) A willfully half-finished ninety minutes of performance, it’s almost admirably sloppy. Gadsby zig-zags between subjects, goes on long tangents, cuts herself off mid-sentence, drops huge, sometimes hackneyed, personal bombshells, and practices crowd-work to varying, occasionally laborious, degrees of success. But with any rough draft, the audience bears witness to all the potential versions a piece might become, and in Douglas, Gadsby seemed to be staring down two possible paths.

In the early 1700s, a physician named James Douglas, a quasi-famous midwife known for performing public dissections of female pelvises in his home, came across a wrinkle of uterine flesh he hadn’t seen before. The region was a tiny cavity, sort of like a kangaroo’s flap, which expands if a woman needs more room during pregnancy. The doctor called his anatomical New World the “Pouch of Douglas.” Medical dictionaries describe Douglas’ revelation as “an extension of peritoneum between the posterior wall of uterus and the rectum in females,” but it’s basically a reproductive crawl-space. As findings go, it’s about as close as you can get to discovering nothing. In comedian Hannah Gadsby’s latest stand-up set, a work-in-progress which runs through March 9 at the Hayworth Theater in L.A., she compares the little flap to the extra zipper on a suitcase. “It’s a potential space,” she told the crowd. Gadsby’s calling her new show “Douglas.”

If there’s a specific subtext behind the choice to name her set after the nothing-discovery of an 18th century pelvis dissector, Gadsby doesn’t mention it outright. Douglas is also the name of her dog. But the new show arrives on the heels ofNanette, a comedy special which aired on Netflix last summer, sending waves through the think-piece internet and comedy Twitterverse. The special, for those who managed not to hear about it, had nothing to do with the name Nanette, and everything to do with a problem Gadsby saw in her industry—namely, an expectation that comedy minorities make themselves the butt of the joke. The polarizing show, which begins as a fairly unremarkable set, before taking a serious twist into Gadsby’s account of a hate crime, prompted two tiresome debates: one over whether it heralded the end of stand-up, and another over whether it constituted stand-up at all. But whatever the special meant for its genre, Nanette signaled something fairly straightforward about Gadsby’s career: “I’m quitting,” she told the crowd. She didn’t, as it turns out. And in Douglas, the comic is workshopping what, exactly, not-quitting looks like.

“It’s hard to know what this show should be,” Gadsby told the audience Thursday night, “because I quit comedy.” Douglas is a work-in-progress at its most fundamental. (“This is rough as guts,” she says at one point, “but I feel pretty comfortable, because Nanette wasn’t funny, and, well…”) A willfully half-finished ninety minutes of performance, it’s almost admirably sloppy. Gadsby zig-zags between subjects, goes on long tangents, cuts herself off mid-sentence, drops huge, sometimes hackneyed, personal bombshells, and practices crowd-work to varying, occasionally laborious, degrees of success. But with any rough draft, the audience bears witness to all the potential versions a piece might become, and in Douglas, Gadsby seemed to be staring down two possible paths.

http://www.acrx.org -As millions of Americans strive to deal with the economic downturn,loss of jobs,foreclosures,high cost of gas,and the rising cost of prescription drug cost. Charles Myrick ,the President of American Consultants Rx, announced the re-release of the American Consultants Rx community service project which consist of millions of free discount prescription cards being donated to thousands of not for profits,hospitals,schools,churches,etc. in an effort to assist the uninsured,under insured,and seniors deal with the high cost of prescription drugs.-American Consultants Rx -Pharmacy Discount Network News

Kandi shared some pretty racy pics and a few funny videos featuring Cynthia on her Instagram account.

‘Happy Birthday to the hottest Housewife @cynthiabailey10!!!!! I hope you’re having an amazing day today. Everybody give her some bday love! ’ Kandi captioned her post which includes a bunch of pics and videos.

Someone praised Kandi and said ‘Cynthia is cute and I love her. But just because she’s a model doesn’t make her the hottest. Actually, in my opinion, you are. Ask Todd. Lol. And I’m not shady or negative. My opinion. Love you both. But you would say that because you are a sweetie with class and style. Until somebody piss you off. Lol. Have a great day.’

Y’all already know that Tiffany Haddish doesn’t follow regular protocol when it comes to celebrities and the encounters she decides to share. Nothing is off limits. And during a recent interview with Glamour UK, Haddish shared that while she was trying to date Drake, as well as his father, Dennis Graham, was trying to get at her.

Haddish said, “Drake slid into my DMs and I had seen him a few days later. He’s like, ‘Yo, you didn’t respond to my DM.’ I was like, ‘I didn’t even know you followed me. ’He was like, ‘Well, I just wanted to know if you want to be in my music video.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ So I did his music video. Then I thought, maybe something might happen. I was like ‘So you going to take me to dinner?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, we can eat dinner.’ Then, I never heard from him again. And that’s because I was being thirsty. That’s my fault! That’s my fault. I should have been like, ‘I’ll see if I can be in your little funky video. Who are you? What do you do again? His dad be hitting me up though and I turned his dad down. So I might end up being Drake’s stepmama.”

It’s abundantly clear that Drake’s daddy is enjoying his son’s fame and access. Ain’t no telling how many celebrities he’s pushing up on.

Director Charles Ferguson’s film recounts the fall of President Richard Nixon, starting with the break-in by thieves seeking material to help his election campaign at the Democratic Party’s offices in Washington’s Watergate complex. Rough cut (no reporter narration).

The Shade Room had a funny challenge for their followers. You are supposed to say which is the worst pronunciation of your name. It seems that Toya Wright and Lil Wayne’s daughter, Reginae Carter stepped up and joined the conversation. Here’s what she said making fans laugh really hard.

Everyone knows these ‘nicknames’ that haters used to give Nae and that’s why this comes as a really funny joke which shows that Nae is smart enough to be able to make fun of herself.

A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom) on Jan 30, 2019 at 9:48pm PST

Someone wrote ‘Resume might be my fav lol,’ and another follower posted ‘Stop playing naeI can relate tho Lynnee’Lynn Lenny Line LeAnn’

Other than this, Nae seems to be doing okay these days, and she just showed her fans the detox secret that she’s using.

‘Okay guys, the real tea since becoming a #teamipartner a couple of months back, I am literally obsessed with @teamiblends detox. I’ve really been working on my body and def struggled in the beginning. It wasn’t until I added @teamiblends detox that I saw killer results. I haven’t been bloated after meals, my stomach stays flat, and I’ve even lost a few lbs. Teami is an easy program you drink every day to get rid of that stuff your body shouldn’t be holding onto. Like carbs and drama use my code NAE20 to save 20% #thankyouteami’ Nae captioned her post on Instagram.

The scene comes late in Curb Your Enthusiasm’s seventh season. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld are getting the band back together for a Seinfeld reunion and on the day of their first big table read, Larry’s friend Marty Funkhouser shows up on set, an enormous plate of free food in one hand, and insists on telling Jerry a joke.

As played by comedian Bob Einstein, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 76, Funkhouser is an amateur comic with no sense of propriety. “He doesn’t want to hear a joke, we have a read-through,” a frustrated Larry tells him, trying to protect his longtime collaborator. But Funkhouser pays him no mind.

For the next 60 seconds straight, Einstein delivers a joke so dirty that we won’t bother transcribing it here—though you can watch it in its entirely below. When he finally gets to the punchline, Jerry laughs so hard he doubles over. “It surprised me,” he says after he recovers. “I had no idea it would be that revolting.” As Einstein walks away, Jerry adds, “I like that guy.”

The scene comes late in Curb Your Enthusiasm’s seventh season. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld are getting the band back together for a Seinfeld reunion and on the day of their first big table read, Larry’s friend Marty Funkhouser shows up on set, an enormous plate of free food in one hand, and insists on telling Jerry a joke.

As played by comedian Bob Einstein, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 76, Funkhouser is an amateur comic with no sense of propriety. “He doesn’t want to hear a joke, we have a read-through,” a frustrated Larry tells him, trying to protect his longtime collaborator. But Funkhouser pays him no mind.

For the next 60 seconds straight, Einstein delivers a joke so dirty that we won’t bother transcribing it here—though you can watch it in its entirely below. When he finally gets to the punchline, Jerry laughs so hard he doubles over. “It surprised me,” he says after he recovers. “I had no idea it would be that revolting.” As Einstein walks away, Jerry adds, “I like that guy.”

http://www.acrx.org -As millions of Americans strive to deal with the economic downturn,loss of jobs,foreclosures,high cost of gas,and the rising cost of prescription drug cost. Charles Myrick ,the President of American Consultants Rx, announced the re-release of the American Consultants Rx community service project which consist of millions of free discount prescription cards being donated to thousands of not for profits,hospitals,schools,churches,etc. in an effort to assist the uninsured,under insured,and seniors deal with the high cost of prescription drugs.-American Consultants Rx -Pharmacy Discount Network News

Upchuck, bubby, boff, wriggly, yaps, giggle, cooch, guffaw, puffball, and jiggly: the top 10 funniest words in the English language, according to a new study. The researchers determined that there are two main kinds of predictors of funniness in words: those related to the form of the word and those related to its meaning.Child Development News — ScienceDaily

Five years have passed since the events in the animated smash-hit The Lego Movie. Construction worker Emmet Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt) still thinks everything is awesome! Yet his friend Lucy (voiced by Elizabeth Banks) is far more somber, talking about a "new life that has hardened and toughened us all."

The new trailer for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part shows us a dangerous new threat that could spell doom for the citizens of Bricksburg. Of course, Emmet won't…

http://www.acrx.org -As millions of Americans strive to deal with the economic downturn,loss of jobs,foreclosures,high cost of gas,and the rising cost of prescription drug cost. Charles Myrick ,the President of American Consultants Rx, announced the re-release of the American Consultants Rx community service project which consist of millions of free discount prescription cards being donated to thousands of not for profits,hospitals,schools,churches,etc. in an effort to assist the uninsured,under insured,and seniors deal with the high cost of prescription drugs.-American Consultants Rx -Pharmacy Discount Network News